For three years after Wagram Napoleon did not in person conduet a single military operation. Family affairs and the administration of his great empire occupied all his attention. During these years many changes were taking place which presaged the downfall of the great con queror. Austria was very cautiously strengthen ing her position under the skillful direction of Metternich. The regeneration of Prussia under Stein, Scharnhorst, and Ilardenberg is one of the most notable events of the nineteenth cen tury. Russia was never content with the French alliance, and the enforcement of the Continental System was causing great suffering and discon tent, and the Czar Alexander was beginning to lose his enthusiastic admiration for Napoleon, who had offended him by concluding a matri monial alliance with Austria without waiting for an answer to his request for the hand of a grand duchess in marriage. and. most of all, by the annexation of Oldenburg to Franey. The es trangement was inereased by the C:esarism of Na poleon, who could no longer endure the existence of even a friendly rival. Alexander, duly warned of Napoleon's intentions, turned to England and in 1512 entered into a close alliance with her. With Turkey he negotiated the Peace of Buelmrest (May 2501). and with Sweden not only peace, hut alli anee (April 51111. Napoleon left Paris early in May, and went direct to Dresden, where he took care to hind Prussia. Austria, and the other Ger man States more elosely to his cause. Then he entered Poland, where he regulated the internal affairs and supervised the mobilization of his army. On 22(1 he issued a declaration of war against Russia. The passage of the Niemen was begun on June 24th. and by the end of the month Napoleon had 400.000 men across the Bits sian frontier. The Czar had between '250.000 and 300.000 men under arms, lint only about one•half of this !mintier ready 10 face Napoleon under Bar clay he 'folly and Bagration. who eondueted a Fri bian campaign. Napoleon found the country devas tated and abandoned as he advanced, with no enemy to make a stand against him. Like Charles X11., a century earlier, he was being lured to his ruin. At Smolensk (August 17th 18th) the French encountered the first serious resistance. Napoleon as he advanced had to leave large bodies of troops along his line of march, and he detached a large force to the northward to capture Mitau and Riga and threaten Saint Petersburg. Russian discontent became pronounced as the people saw Barclay de 'Folly and lkrgration permitting Napoleon to ad vance unresisted on their ancient capital, Mos cow. The two generals allowed themselves to be superseded by Kutusoff, who chose his ground, and on September 7th offered battle to the French at Borodino (q.v.). It was the bloodiest battle of the century, the losses probably aggregating 40, 000 on each side. The loss to Napoleon, who could obtain no reinforcements, was fatal, hut still he pressed on and entered Moscow (September 14th) only to find himself robbed of the fruit of victory by the terrible conflagration which broke out two days later. With a folly that seemed mad ness, Napoleon lingered in the city until October 19th before beginning the retreat. The hard fought drawn battle of Malo-Yaroslavitz (October 24th) compelled Napoleon to retreat by the same desert road on which he had advanced, instead of by a more southerly route through country not yet devastated by war. Sufferings frien the cold and from lack of food were intensified by the constant presence of the Russians on the flanks and in the rear. The expected supplies were not found at Smolensk, and the sufferings of the French reached their terrible climax at the cross ing of the Teresina (November 26th-28th), where thousands perished in spite of the heroic efforts of Oudinot and Ney. A week later Napoleon turned over the command to Murat and hastened to reach Paris and organize a new army before the news of the great disaster should become known in Western Europe. Ney, the bravest of the brave, in commend of the rear-guard, pro tected the retreat, but only 20.000 out of the 400,000 who had crossed the Niemen in June re crossed it in December. The disaster, however, was greater than the mere loss of an army of 400,000 men. Napoleon had lost his prestige, and henceforth Castlereagh, the English Foreign Minister, and the Czar Alexander supplanted Napoleon as controllers of the destinies of Eu rope. The Czar advanced into Eastern Prussia, where he installed as Governor the ex-Minister Stein, who placed himself at the head of a great Prussian patriot le rising against Na poleon. Driven by this outburst of national spirit, Fred crick William 111. signed an alliance with the Czar at Kalisz (February 27, 1813). Austria, under Metternich, hesitated between Napoleon and Alexander and offered to mediate. Napo leon sent into Germany a new army made up of conscripts and of troops withdrawn from Spain, and on April 29th, at \Veinier, assumed the direc tion of the campaign of 1813, which he had de cided to fight on the line of the Elbe, where Eugene de Beanharnais and Devout were strug gling to check the Russians and repress the Prus sians. Successes at Liitzen and Gross-IMrschen
(May 2d) on the great plain around Leipzig enabled Napoleon to occupy Dresden as his base of operations, and advance to Bautzen, where he defeated the Allies on \tsy 20th-21st.
Napoleon should have followed up this move ment with vigor, but he hesitated because of the untrained condition of his army and of the atti tude of Austria. Bernadotte, after the Treaty of Stockholm with England (March 3d), had lauded at Stralsund, prepared to take an active part in the overthrow of Napoleon. whom lie had learned to hate bitterly. Moreau, the only surviving French rival of Napoleon, was summoned from America to act as chief adviser of the Allies. England signed new treaties with Prussia and Russia ( June 14th-l5th), and the Czar and Met ternich signed at Reichenbach (June 2711n) a secret treaty, by which Austria bound herself to join the Allies if Napoleon did not accept her proposals before the expiration of the truce, on August 10th. This was equivalent to a treaty of alliance, for it was certain that the Congress of Prague would accomplish nothing. On Au gust 10th the Austrian army under Sehwarzen berg began operations in Bohemia in concert with the allied army under Bliicher in Silesia. The vic tory of Wellington at Vittoria (.June 21, 1813) encouraged the Allies and made a great victory an absolute necessity to Napoleon, who promptly took the offensive and attempted to force a battle with Blucher near Garlitz and crush him and then turn against Schwa rzenberg. Bliieher evaded battle and Schwarzenberg advanced to at tack Dresden. Napoleon reached Dresden just in time, and on August 26th-27th won his last great victory. (See DRESDEN, BATTLE OF.) For the moment Dresden was saved, hut the success was more than offset by the defeats inflicted upon his subordinates, Oudinot at Grossbeeren (August 23d), i\lacdonald on the Katzbach ( August 26th), Vandamme at. Kuhn (August 29th 30th ), and Ney at Dennewitz ( September fith ). The losses of Napoleon during the ten • days' campaign were almost overwhelming and irretrievable, while ret;nforeements speedily made good the losses of the Allies. Napoleon failed to appreciate that the line of the Elbe had become untenable from the moment that Austria joined the Allies, and instead of falling back of the Rhine and offering to negotiate, he continued to struggle to hold Dresden. Constant rains and bad roads had been an important factor in the August campaigns and prevented Napoleon. in spite of his boundless. energy and activity, from accomplishing anything in Septem ber. This failure was fatal, for in October the Allies, who had defined their relations in the Treaty of Toplitz (September 19th), took the offensive and developed their campaign with such skill that Napoleon was completely deceived until they had nearly eompleted their disposi tions. BRicher, unperceived, crept around Napo leon's left, got in touch with Bernadotte, and ad vanced toward Leipzig from the north, while Schwarzenherg was advancing from the south toward the same place. Napoleon left Gouvion Saint-Cyr to hold Dresden and hurriedly concen trated all available forces to protect Leipzig and hold his lines of communication. For three days (October filth. 18th. and 19111), 'the Battle of the Nations' raged around Leipzig, and on the last day the French were driven out of in a disas trous rout. (See LEIPZIG, BATTLES OF.) Napoleon retreated hastily behind the Rhine, stopping only to destroy, at Henan (Oetober 30th), the army of Bavaria, which had recently joined the Allies. Napoleon made a serious mistake in leaving able lieutenants with large garrisons to hold the great German fortresses, thus depriving himself of the assistance of Itapp, who held Danzig with 8000 men: Davout, who was shut up in Ilamburg with 12,000 men, and many others. These places were besieged and captured by the Allies during the ensuing months, hut the bulk of the allied army pressed on toward Paris. Blucher with the Prussians and part of the Russians crossed the Rhine at Canb (December 31st) and began the invasion of France; Sehwarzenberg, with the Austrians and the rest of the Russians, entered France by the way of Basel. To meet this double invasion, Napoleon could only muster a small army. This he interposed between Bliieher and `i-lrnw;a•zenhcrg, whom he defeated in turn. 1:Mellor's army was dispersed in the battles of Brienne, Champaubert. Shmtmirail. and Van champs, between January 29th and February 14, 1814, while divisions of Schwarzenberg's army were severely worsted at Nangis(February 17th) and iNlontereau (February 180).